


g l a m o u r p u s s

by cairistiona13



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Blogging, F/F, Fem!Sehun, Gen, Makeup, Makeup bloggers, Slice of Life, YouTube, fem!baekhyun, fem!chen, vlogging - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-30 07:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12103308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cairistiona13/pseuds/cairistiona13
Summary: [Prompt #G36] It’s a picture posted by someone called @makeupwchen, who appears to be a seriously attractive girl with long dark hair teased into cat ears, cat-shaped eyes lined in a thin layer of black eyeliner, a huge dark red smile, and—Thosecheekbones. You could probably cut glass with them, Baekseol thinks, and finds herself scrabbling for her highlighter.





	g l a m o u r p u s s

Baekseol purses her lips as she demonstrates for the camera how the lipstick, a thick ultra-matte liquid lip from a new company, looks on. It’s a dark purple, which is not a colour Baekseol usually goes for, but it looks surprisingly good with her complexion, and feels nice on. It was also near-impossible to find even in the heart of downtown Hongdae, so beggars can’t be choosers about the colours on offer.

“It’s pretty nice,” she says, tilting her chin so the camera gets a better angle. “It feels really smooth, and actually pretty moisturising? We’ll need to see how it lasts the day to get a better idea of how good it is, though. Did you get a good look at how I put it on? It goes on pretty easily, but because it’s dark you probably want to layer it to make sure none of your lip shows through. The waterline is also hard to cover, but that’s more due to the lip colour than the lipstick itself.”

She turns to look at the rest of her makeup collection. It’d probably do to have paler makeup alongside this lipstick—she doesn’t want to look too richly coloured. But she also doesn’t want to look like a goth, because that’s not really her either. “I’ll just put on the rest of my makeup and then head out. I’ll see you all later.”

It’s just as she’s reaching to turn the camera off when her phone starts vibrating, the interference bouncing off her computer setup. Wincing, Baekseol turns everything off quickly, knowing she’ll have to check the recording to make sure she won’t have to cut too much, and then turns to look at her phone, which seems to have turned into some kind of alternate use sound system, due to the fact it’s buzzing wildly with push notifications from Instagram. It’s the kind of response she gets when she posts a picture of her makeup for her fans to scrutinise and study, which is unusual, because she hasn’t posted anything in almost a week.

For a moment she furrows her brows, trying to work out whether one of her older pictures has blown up, and then she checks the notifications.

_look! at! her! cheekbones! omg @bbbaekup unnie look!_

_@bbbaekup unnie have you seen this? her face is perf for your makeup!_

_Isn’t @bbbaekup always looking for victims? I mean volunteers obvs. Perf or perf?_

_her cheekbones are amazing!!!! @bbbaekup, you should collab!!!_

_there’s a nu maekup chalengge rite? @bbbaekup nuna, do it 2gether?_

_HER!!CHEEKBONES!! @bbbaekup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

It goes on and on like that for several lengths of screen—longer than Baekseol would have thought.

Thumbing through her phone, she navigates to the source of the buzzing.

It’s a picture posted by someone called @makeupwchen, who appears to be a seriously attractive girl with long dark hair teased into cat ears, cat-shaped eyes lined in a thin layer of black eyeliner, a huge dark red smile, and—

Those _cheekbones_. You could probably cut glass with them, Baekseol thinks, and finds herself scrabbling for her highlighter before she catches herself and stills her hands.

 _Wow_ , her fans weren’t wrong. That girl, that really gorgeous girl, would be _perfect_ for a makeup challenge. She can just imagine where she’d put the highlights to enhance the best part of her face.

She scrolls down to read the message underneath the photo.

_Hi guys! It’s your girl Chen! This is my first selca—do you like it? I just wanted to show off this cool new hipTyDe makeup! #makeup #blogger #chen #makeupwchen #hiptyde #cosmetics #hiptyde ny #garnetrose #blackice_

Baekseol, momentarily lacking judgement, presses her thumb against the photograph, and immediately her phone starts blowing up again.

_@makeupwchen unni omg @bbbaekup unni knows you exist omg my faves_

_@bbbaekup noona notice me like you noticed @makeupwchen noona!!! i’m at @cosmetaecs!_

_OMG Jonghwa /how/? @bbbaekup_

_icant belev @bbbaekup nos bout u jonghwa omg u luki gzb_

Baekseol winces, and shuts off her phone quickly. She stills needs to do the rest of her makeup.

Even as she’s putting it on, she finds herself looking over at her phone, and just _thinking_.

 

The lipstick does not survive the day.

It makes an admirable effort, trying to cling onto the creases in her lips, but everything deteriorates quickly after Baekseol and Kyungsoo get lunch together at Kyungsoo’s favourite noodle restaurant, which was not unexpected. The lipstick that stays on after a bowl of sauce-covered noodles is a keeper, and there is little of it out there.

Kyungsoo is no stranger to holding the camera for her when she’s out in public, so he holds it for her as she shows off the damage. “It didn’t last through the japchae we had for lunch,” she says to the camera. “I was expecting that. The lipstick I tried last time was a bit better at this, you’ll remember.”

When they’ve finished recording, her phone buzzes again, as a couple of makeup vloggers post their take on the new “favourite colour” makeup challenge. One of the vloggers has tagged her video with #yellow, and already Baekseol is intrigued. Baekseol’s favourite colours are black, grey and white, and she’s quite interested in making a makeup look that works with only grey or white makeup.

She doesn’t realise she’s murmured aloud until Kyungsoo says, “Another challenge?”

“Yeah,” she says. “Some fans mentioned it to me, said I should collab with this girl—I think she’s a model or something, who does makeup, I don’t know. I’ll look her up now.”

A few moments later she has Chen’s website open. It looks like Chen—Kim Jonghwa—is a makeup blogger who advises audiences on what makeup to buy to suit their skin tones. She focuses on undertones, skin shade and hair colour.

_Bold red lipstick suits people who are pale and people who are super dark skinned, but people who are a little tan might find that some red shades don’t work with their skin tone. Don’t worry! There is a red for literally every shade and hair colour, and I can help advise on some shades that might look good. Click below for more info._

She then proceeds to give links to the websites of brands from all around the world, pointing out what looks good and what sounds good from reviews.

“Wow,” Baekseol says. “This is some thoroughly researched stuff.”

What she can’t see, though, is any physical sign of Jonghwa on the site. She doesn’t have any pictures of her wearing any of the makeup, or even of her swatching colours. There are some other girls on the website, modelling for Jonghwa, but none of herself, just a link to her Instagram. Baekseol guesses that that selca really _was_ her first photograph of herself out publicly.

“Do you think she’d be up for working with you?”

Baekseol shrugs. “Only one way to find out!”

 

She sends the first message once she’s finished editing her video (the clip from this morning was salvageable, thankfully) and is processing it. It’s about time in her schedule for a new video anyway.

_hi, i’m baekseol!_

_OMG! Hi Baekseol! I’m Jonghwa. Were your notifs blowing up a lot? I noticed you were getting tagged a whole lot—sorry about that!_

_np jonghwa, s’all good! anyway, I was wondering if you’ve seen the fave colour makeup challenge? our fans were asking about it!_

_Yeah! My friend Seyoung did it. @youngsetarz, you know her?_

Funnily enough, Baekseol actually does. Younger girl, with really nice eyes, though she’s not usually terribly expressive (it’s unfortunate, in Baekseol’s opinion. She does have _excellent_ taste in makeup, though). Kyungsoo is always complaining about her—she seems to do something new to annoy him every day. Baekseol finds it hilarious.

_omg yeh, I know her! she & ksoo are bffs????_

_Yeah!!  
You know Kyungsoo? It’s a small world!_

_yeh it is! I didn’t realise he knew you! anyway, wanna do it together? I have some great ideas. no pressure tho!_

_You mean on camera, with you?_

_if that’s how you wanna do it, then sure!_

_OK, lemme get back to you on that one, okay? I’ve never been on camera before, I need to think it over first._

_np! just lemme know, I’ll wait! :)_

 

Her fans like the video, though it’s not like Baekseol was expecting anything less.

_r u gonna do the fave makeup chal.?_

_super pretty makeup unnie! are you gonna do more challenges soon?_

_maybe it’s bc it’s purple? I’d get the pink! btw what’s ur fav colour?_

_Noona, have you seen the new challenge? Are you going to do it with MakeupwChen noona? We’re all super excited!_

Baekseol sighs, because she doesn’t know either.

 

It takes three days for Jonghwa to come back to Baekseol.

_Okay, I think the challenge seems fun, and Seyoung’s convinced me. You’re in Seoul, right?_

_yeh! wanna meet up later? ___

____

__Jonghwa works in Digital Media City, which is about thirty minutes away on the train from Baekseol. They make plans to meet in the Paris Baguette along the road from the station on Thursday, as it’s a nice and neutral place to be for a first meet-up. Baekseol’s had first meetings in far worse places, like the time a potential boyfriend took her to a café which gave her food poisoning, or the time that girl wanted to meet in a club that was so unpleasantly loud she couldn’t hear a thing her date said. She still thinks that the girl did it deliberately._ _

__Jonghwa, when Baekseol meets her, is actually _more attractive_ than her photo had suggested, if that’s possible. Baekseol spots her instantly, even though her hair is tied back and she’s wearing only a thin line of eyeliner and a nude lip. It draws out her natural beauty, something which Baekseol envies. She knows that she looks good with makeup on, but she’s never really looked as good as Jonghwa does with a natural look._ _

__Jonghwa is more tanned than Baekseol would have thought, her skin a nice smooth shade with golden undertones. Baekseol really wants to put a nice gold highlighter on her, probably a Ruth Benneton highlighter. She’d suit it, where Baekseol doesn’t._ _

__“Hi,” Baekseol says. “Have you been waiting long?”_ _

__“Hi Baekseol,” Jonghwa says, smiling up at her. Her smile is kitten-like, and Baekseol wants to coat it in a thick red gloss. Jonghwa suits red. “No, just got here. Want a drink?”_ _

__They chat about casual things over iced Americanos and sandwiches, particularly their mutual friends (“Did you see that Seyoung and Kyungsoo met up after we last talked? What a small world! I still can’t believe it.”), when Jonghwa brings up the makeup challenge._ _

__“Do you want to use me for a makeup look for your favourite colour? Or do you want to do me up in my favourite colour? It could be a challenge either way.”_ _

__Baekseol shrugs. “Either could be fun, depending on the colour. What’s your favourite?”_ _

__“Pink, but I also like blue.”_ _

__Baekseol has never actually made a makeup look out of only pink makeup; usually she mixes colours. But blue would be more interesting. She doesn’t own any blue makeup, it makes her look ashen. And yet, her favourite colour is grey, so it’s not like she can actually talk._ _

__“How about I do you in blue. Do you want to do my makeup? My favourite colour is grey, which could be tricky.”_ _

__Jonghwa shakes her head. “Actually, I’m pretty sure hipTyDe do a silver lipstick in their flagship Korean store,” she says. “And I have this silver holo highlighter from Mazkyne that I’ve never found a use for. It seems doable.”_ _

__They discuss any allergies they have to makeup and their preferred brands (Jonghwa likes Ruth Benneton almost as much as Kyungsoo likes spaghetti, which is a _lot_ ), just so they know nothing will cause a problem or make them break out (what an utter hell that would be), and then decide to meet up on Saturday to record._ _

__Baekseol’s already excited. (Kyungsoo hates it.)_ _

__

__One of Baekseol’s joys in life is buying makeup._ _

__She likes to swatch everything on her skin, just to test everything out, but unfortunately Jonghwa is tanner than she is, and she’s not sure everything would go quite so well. She’d ask Kyungsoo to model (not the first time; he takes it surprisingly well, usually), but he’s also a different shade. Baekseol knows different shades of makeup complement different skin tones, so she goes about it from memory, imagining each blue as it’d look on Jonghwa’s face, with its buttery golden undertones. Royal blue would look the best, she feels; deep and clear. It would complement Jonghwa just as well as it would herself._ _

__She shops around various companies, taking photos of things she likes and comparing them to others until she has a shortlist, which she promptly buys; the royal blue lipstick and cyan eyeshadow from hipTyDe, the foundation and blush from mascreen—it has the slightest blue undertone, which will hopefully complement Jonghwa’s own gold—, the navy eyeliner from FeelEyeKonique, the mascara from Ruth Benneton that is so dark it’s almost purple, and an eyeshadow and highlighter from Monde Naturel Paris which both seem to contain an awful lot of glitter and sparkle. Baekseol thinks it’ll look great, if she blends it all together._ _

__And great it does, when she has Jonghwa sitting in front of her makeup and camera setup, the blue look coming together marvellously. Jonghwa is the best kind of model; patient and pretty, who knows how to purse her lips and blink her lashes. (Kyungsoo would never.)_ _

__Jonghwa’s own grey haul is nearby, winking at Baekseol in its sheer shimmering glory. Jonghwa seemed to go for more silver than grey, and self-given bonus points for sparkle or holographic aspects. Baekseol lets her have her fun. Her cheekbones are not as magnificent as Jonghwa’s in her sparkly subtle blue shimmer, but they still look good, and absolutely appropriate for a school dance. She discovers that she quite likes holographic makeup; the disco ball effect is flattering on her in a way she hadn’t thought it’d be._ _

__The recording is uneventful; they do converse when the camera is off, but aside from a little light teasing, most of their recorded dialogue comes from explaining where the makeup is from, why they chose it, and how nicely it goes on—in the case of the foundation, “not as well as I’d hoped”, is the polite answer. Considering how mascreen are usually a good company, Baekseol supposes that Blue 4 just doesn’t suit a golden undertone. Unsurprising. In Jonghwa’s case, she laments how Baekseol is a little washed out from her blush, which is utterly too ghostly for Baekseol’s liking._ _

__After recording and photographing their attempts at prettying each other up (rather unnaturally, in both cases), and following a somewhat strict makeup challenge, Jonghwa, looking up, through her newly blue eyelashes, at Baekseol, invites her out to a “really cool nightclub” to show off her look._ _

__Baekseol grins. “I’d be delighted,” she says, and grabs her camera. She wouldn’t miss the opportunity to record any of this for the world._ _

__

__The edited videos, one for each of them, and one for their night of madness (just in case the fans want to see what they get up to in their spare time—there’s no kissing, though) go up a week later, carefully chopped into bitesize chunks for their fans. Jonghwa’s given permission for Baekseol to upload it, as she doesn’t have a YouTube channel, and on upload day she sits beside Baekseol, their knees knocking together as her nerves start to show. Baekseol isn’t sure why she’s so worried; she’s positive everything will be just fine._ _

__And a moment later she’s proven right, when the first comment pops up. Jonghwa melts, flopping backwards onto the bed in relief._ _

___what did we do to be blessed with such beauty on one screen????_ _ _

__“See,” Baekseol says. “I told you so.”_ _

__Jonghwa whines._ _

**Author's Note:**

> None of the makeup companies are real. Please don't go looking for them!
> 
> This was just a little slice-of-life thing. Sorry the pairing wasn't really focused on, but I definitely wanted to imply they hook up--I hope that comes through in the fic!


End file.
